Alexandria, VA – At Z MovieZ has been revisiting reincarnated blockbusters of summers past all last month. AND… loving it! Reboots, sequels, remastered and 2.0 flicks seem to never ride out into the sunset, despite a reputation for being pale imitations of those very films that started it all.
The summer of 2025 may well prove to be the blockbuster season that defies the cinephile doomsday myth of sequelstration. Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch grossed over $900 million, setting the new Memorial Day weekend 4-day opening box office record and holding for a time as the highest grossing film of 2025. Enter Jurassic World: Rebirth and Superman.
DYNAMITE DINOS and a SUPERB SUPERMAN
Summer live-action redux releases so far have included the long-awaited conclusion of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Was it? I don’t know, I’ve already forgotten! Jurassic World: Rebirth and Superman blew my mind right out of the lounge seat.
Who needs a seventh film about dinosaurs dining on each other as well as the occasional jeep or accidental paleontologist – or yet another in a baker’s dozen appearances by the iconic man of steel dodging femme fatal kryptonite, a licentiously loathsome Lex Luther, and an incorrigible AI generated puppy dog? WE DO!
If you are a Jurassic Park FANatic who has seen every paleo portrayal in the Jurassic Park metaverse scores of times, you won’t need a primer on all the Easter eggs hiding in plain sight throughout Rebirth. Director Gareth Edwards also drops homage eggs to Spielberg’s cinematic legacy with Titanosauric abandon (a wink and a nod to Titanic to boot!): Jaws, of course, but Indiana Jones’s Raiders and Final Crusade as well.
Edwards doesn’t believe that enough is enough. Adding to the smile-out-loud joy of the Jurassic world’s wonderfully wild ride, despite the requisite loss of a crew member here and there, Edwards honors two of my favorite filmmakers: Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve, incorporating an Alien-esque mega-monster and a Bladerunner 2049 retro moment.
JAMES GUNN REINVENTS the SUPERVERSE
While it helps to revisit Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (JP2), and Jurassic World (JP4) before viewing Rebirth, there’s no need to binge every film made with Superman in it. James Gunn’s Superman 2025 is not your mother’s Superman. It stands entirely on its own. No easy feat given the lengthy legacy of the Superman media franchise, kickstarted in June 1938 as a comic book. When the writer and director is also the Co-CEO of DC Studios, the bar is raised all the way to Krypton.
David Corenswet presents as chiseled a hunk of super man as any – from George Reeves to Christopher Reeves and Dean Cain (starred in ABC’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, 1993-1997) to Henry Cavill. Corenswet draws from the vulnerability and subtleties with the humor of the apotheosis of supermen, Christopher Reeves, as well as his more campy predecessor George Reeves in the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman. This Superman is not pure pathos. He’s savvy and sexy and suave.
Rachel Brosnahan is the perfect personification of Lois Lane. Driven, ambitious, feisty, and fine (but not too fine) looking. You know her as the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and she is a marvelous match to this latest man of steadfastly steely good looks. She does justice to prior spitfire gal reporters while in a league of her own.
This is David Corenswet’s debut film role, a daunting undertaking for a novice actor starring with veterans Emmy and Golden Globe winner Rachel Brosnahan and, as Jor-El, actor/writer/director Bradley Cooper, nominated for 12 Oscars alone. Coupled with actors X-Man Nicholas Hoult and Alien Avenger Isabela Merced, the only thing left to upstage this Superman is a shaggy dog.
Enter 1955’s stage right: Krytpo the Superdog, beckoned to rescue Superman, who is as down and out at the Fortress of Solitude as John Wick was after being shot off the Continental rooftop. Inspired by Gunn’s own cantankerous canine Ozu, Krypto rescues Superman and he rescues him right back. And, yes, he can fly!
Ozu became the physical model for the four-legged hero using 3-D scans of the indefatigable pound puppy’s play. He even had his own stand-in named Jolene. Apparently Superman is simply fostering Krypto for Supergirl, an upcoming DC Studios reboot. Let’s just hope Krypto fares better in Supergirl than adorable Daisy the beagle puppy did in John Wick.
AUGUST DROPS of NOTE
The 2025 blockbuster summer sequel/spinoff/2.0 revision filmscape offers a bonanza of fantastic filmmaking. Don’t miss F1 about Formula 1 racing with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem. And if live-action legacies and jaw-dropping thrillers aren’t your jam, Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun opens August 1 with Freakier Friday coming on August 8, and Bob Odenkirk as the family man’s John Wick in Nobody 2 on August 15, all in theaters.
JAWS IS BAAAAACK!
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water… And for those of you for whom every week is Shark Week, get your tickets NOW for the remastered OG summer blockbuster: the 50th anniversary of Jaws, re-released in IMAX, 4DX, and 3D! One week only: August 29 – September 4. Remember, underwater no one can hear you scream. But it’s okay at Z MovieZ!
